Pertemps Bees 29 Coventry 7
Pertemps Bees are a team with an identity crisis, one that can't decide whether it is more like the full-bodied vintage of 2004 or the insipid crop of early 2005.
This season is only five games old and in that time we have seen both extremes and many of the points in between.
There was bravery in defeat to Harlequins, cussedness in the win over Plymouth Albion, desperation against London Welsh and a whole host of characteristics in the draw at Sedgley Park last weekend.
But on Saturday this was Bees at their best and a performance that would have made the indomitable class of 2004 proud.
It contained much of what made that side the most successful in the club's short history. A combative effort up front, incision from half-back and a potent display in the three-quarters.
By the time Coventry trudged off the Sharmans Cross Road pitch they were a well-beaten group of players - to call them a team, on the evidence of this game alone, would be descriptively criminal.
They are, no doubt, a much better side than the one that left Solihull. They have annihilated Otley already this campaign and only last week put together a delightful 20 minutes at Doncaster.
But their confidence is low and as soon as Bees penetrated their line the balloon that is their self-esteem was popped. From the time Nick Baxter capitalised on Matt Miles' interception - just short of the hour - the visitors had no say on proceedings which meant, in the end, it was mildly embarrassing.
Not for the hosts, though. For the first time in a year there is a swagger about Phil Maynard's men as they set about rebuilding their quirky little ground into the least hospitable place in National One.
Quins came and had their nose blue-bloodied before skipping away with the points, Plymouth were suffocated and Coventry were never allowed to rest.
Which makes the fact that they led the first hour 7-3 all the more remarkable because only once were their backs allowed sufficient distance from the wall, to ask a single question of their hosts.
Bees failed to find the answer as Hendry Rheeders somehow eluded the covering back row and scampered from the base of a scrum on halfway to a position deep into home territory where he could find Dave Tiueti.
The wing popped inside to Tom Johnson for the type of score from first-phase that hinted at a blown assignment. Dave Harvey converted.
But those were the only points Coventry scored or indeed looked like scoring as Bees dominated possession and territory for the rest of the first half.
That they had only Ben Harvey' s simple 12th-minute penalty to show for it was down to their own illdiscipline - they wasted promising platforms on three occasions with daft infringements - and Cov's fanatical defence.
Birmingham peppered their guests' fringes and focused on their driving maul for most of the first period. When they did throw it wide there was no way through a strong-looking visiting rearguard. It looked as though they were getting nowhere.
But rugby matches are won in the first hour and the margin of victory is decided in the last 20 minutes and that's exactly what happened here.
The pressure Bees applied in that opening half sapped Coventry's resources and they were eventually able to convert it into tries for Baxter, Tom Beim, Cae Trayhern and Dave Knight.
If Miles interception was the pin that burst the balloon, Tim Walsh supplied the boot that trampled it and the brain that dissected the remnants.
His cross-field kick to Beim for the second try was a moment of real class and his break for Knight's score - the one that earned a bonus point - confirmed his growing dominance and his complete mastery of his opposite number. In short, the Australian was majestic and seems liberated by the passing of goal-kicking responsibilities to Harvey.
Walsh's direct opponent was Jon Higgins and Saturday was a day the young flyhalf will want to forget. It was his pass that Miles nicked and his reverse attempt that gifted possession to Ed Orgee for the third try. Neither he, nor fellow half-back Rob Chrystie, had much to commend their afternoon's work.
But they enjoyed red-letter days by comparison to debutant full-back Dave Harvey who did nothing to justify the faith invested in him by head coach Mike Umaga.
Harvey's touch-kicking was atrocious and put his side under a vast degree of strain as Bees ran every ball back at them. His team-mates' failure to establish a territorial platform meant the primary reason for his inclusion - goalkicking - could not be fairly judged.
Nevertheless, an 85 per cent kicker he may be but he ended this game with one out of two and a disappointing miss from an angled 40-metre attempt on the half-hour.
Umaga has some serious thinking to do this week before Saturday's match at Harlequins while all Bees have to do is decide who they want to be.
